Here's a good idea for the FPS genre:

[DaHero]

How about instead of a health bar, or regenerative health, there be an actual damage system?

I just recently finished STALKER: Call of Pripyat for the 3rd time when it hit me, why isn't the health system in STALKER ever thought about?

Hear me out, when a person takes damage on STALKER they take a little initial damage and then begin to bleed. More bullets increase the bleeding effect. The only way to stop the bleeding (effectively) is to apply a bandage. Even after using the bandage the blood loss/HP loss is still there, which could regenerate similar to Call of Duty if a compromise HAD to be met.

Theoretically this would do away with a lot of the problems being faced on FPS games to date. Games would stop becoming who can twitch shoot the best and would be more focused towards who can shoot without being shot (I think we can all agree THAT would take skill). This could also make sniping much more balanced as the bullet could still do high damage but the bleeding rate would be lower, meaning snipers would have to actually snipe...from a distance...like an actual sniper. Also, like STALKER, body armor reduces impact negation but once the bleeding starts there is trouble. I think the closest analogy would be in RPGs with the poison Damage Over Time systems, particularly found in (never going to believe this) Two Worlds. The DOT stacks with every hit so without attention the character is going to die. Maybe this would tone down on the rushing run and gun bile being spewed out across FPS games these days.

Oh, if this is ever used in a game, I'm not suing because this isn't originally my idea. (talking to James and all them from Extra Credits)

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

You know what? I'm happy with the status quo. I don't want realism in health systems.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

I think Far Cry 2 had a system somewhat similar. Can't remember, though.
Also, it would be a pain to apply bandages in multiplayer unless you could find somewhere safe quickly >.>
Would be interesting to see how well it works, but... eh.

 

[Omikron009]

The idea is interesting when applied to multiplayer shooters, but if the player took as much damage as they did in STALKER, even on the lower difficulties, there wouldn't be a very noticeable difference when fighting competent human opponents.

 

[scrambledeggs]

Go and play Metal Gear Solid 3... It uses this exact system.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Sounds like sacrificing fun for realism! Never good!

 

[DaHero]

But here's the thing with implementing it with a fast pace style of game like COD- it breaks flow. Watching a five second animation of sticking a patch on a wound, while not able to do anything else, which could lead to enemies running up to your position and shooting your patch right off, isn't a good implementation. At least with the jam screen of death, you could hide in a corner, holding off enemies while you slowly recover. Dunno, I'm no fan of regen health, but it's competent. It works. Bleeding effect system sounds dangerous. Hell, I'll pick up STALKER though when I can.

I didn't exactly mean it was for the CoD arcadey style of gameplay. I was thinking more along the lines of Battlefield or MoH. CoD has never once pulled something off as realistic and I'm not expecting them to. I tried to get into the STALKER multiplayer but all the servers are Russian (surprise?).

Sounds like sacrificing fun for realism! Never good!

More like sacrificing mind numbing arcade gameplay with a more REAL tactical squad-oriented gameplay that force players to think...which equals LOTS more fun.

 

[DjinnFor]

I was formulating in my mind a damage system that models reality while at the same time adds fun game dynamics not too long ago. It went something like this:

Every time you were attacked an 'injury' was inflicted on you. This injury would do the following:
-Decrease your health regeneration rate, possibly causing it to become negative.
-Add a physical effect to your character that limits him or her in some way.

The actual potency of all of the above would depend on where the bullet (or whatever) hit you, what kind of armor you're wearing and how well the bullet (or whatever) penetrates armor, and how much actual flesh displacement the bullet causes.

For light wounds your health regeneration per second (let's suppose everyone starts with 100 max health and 10 health regen per second) would only be decreased slightly and there would be few side affects. So if someone grazed your skin with a pistol bullet you could shrug it off; you'd probably lose 2 or 3 health regen, and you might get the status effect of "slight temporary pain" which jolts your aim a little bit and blurs your vision for a second and then you shrug it off.

Moderate wounds would start a bleedout effect where your health would start deteriorating at a slow rate. Bullets don't actually cause any damage, only damage over time; but if the health regeneration penalty is like -20 per second, well, you're dead in 10 seconds (10 base regen - 20 = -10 modified regen). If you were clipped in the upper leg by a sniper round, you'd probably get the status effects "fall down", "can't walk", "blurred vision", "shock" etc. etc. whatever.

Serious wounds would probably kill you in a few seconds; chest shots, if they didn't immediately incapacitate you with the appropriate status effect, would make your health go down like -200 per second or something so you might have the ability to squeeze off a single round before dying. Headshots would be immediate death.

You can then incorporate stamina into that as well; all actions take stamina and your maximum stamina is equal to your current health; so if you're weak you can't sprint (you might not even be able to move). It could be like 100 is healthy, 0 is wounded, and -50 is dead, and if you have less than 0 health (and thus less than 0 stamina), you can't sprint at all.

You could have healing items like adrenaline shots, bandages, and emergency surgury equipment that could restore some lost health regen, maybe bring a guy back from the brink of death. In a game with no respawns, or a collective team cost to respawning, this system might be food for thought. With everything so lethal you'd have to really be paying attention to your surroundings to stand a chance. Realistic military strategy could come into play as both teams set up sniper positions or use MGs to cover key areas. Throw in large maps and huge team sizes, destructible cover, and access to vehicles and you could have a full-blown mil sim.

This would make for an interesting game; maybe not a good one, but a novelty idea to try out. Might attract some of the 'realism' gamer crowd. Or it might prove revolutionary: with this kind of system, things like Call of Duty's Last Stand and Martyrdom aren't just special little bonus abilities that you get, but are actually built into the game system. The emphasis is on cover, concealment, and precise accuracy: being able to hit a headshot on the first trigger pull would be essential to ensure that the enemy couldn't get any lucky blows, and stealth would be a serious asset.

Or it could just devolve into camping in corners. You'd have to build into the game some kind of objective that both teams have to fight over to encourage movement I guess.

So yeah; the idea of a more realistic health system has merit but it'd have to be thoroughly tested.

 

[MrShowerHead]

ArmA II. That's my answer.

ACE mod for ArmA has somewhat similar health system you're talking about.

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Snip

That would be great, but only if implemented in a non CoD/Halo-ish style game.

Having something like that in fast paced shooter would kill it completely.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Theoretically this would do away with a lot of the problems being faced on FPS games to date. Games would stop becoming who can twitch shoot the best and would be more focused towards who can shoot without being shot (I think we can all agree THAT would take skill).

So you're saying camping is a skill? That's like saying being able to deep throat if you're a guy is a skill, same thing they both mean you're a ******.

Okay that was kinda harsh man. Theres nothing wrong with campers really, if they stay in one place, then you can kill them easily, and if they move around to different locations, then they arent really camping

 

[chieften]

Well I remember an old Call of Duty mod from United Offensive as well as a mod from COD4 that instead of regenerative health or health packs, you had 1 health bar and then a couple bandages. So when you got shot, your character would slow down (because you were shot!) and would slowly bleed out. the rate of bleeding was affected by where you were shot so it would take longer to bleed out from a foot injury compared to a gutshot. the only way to not bleed to death was to apply a bandage. The bandage would stop the bleeding and heal a small amount of the overall damage but never all of it. I think there was a system similar to this in the Project reality mod from Battlefield 2

 

[IBlackKiteI]

Well I remember an old Call of Duty mod from United Offensive as well as a mod from COD4 that instead of regenerative health or health packs, you had 1 health bar and then a couple bandages. So when you got shot, your character would slow down (because you were shot!) and would slowly bleed out. the rate of bleeding was affected by where you were shot so it would take longer to bleed out from a foot injury compared to a gutshot. the only way to not bleed to death was to apply a bandage. The bandage would stop the bleeding and heal a small amount of the overall damage but never all of it. I think there was a system similar to this in the Project reality mod from Battlefield 2

Yeah I remember that, but it totally messed up the gameplay in most cases.

However there were times, usually depending on the map, when it was awesome.

 

[Lukeydoodly]

Games would stop becoming who can twitch shoot the best and would be more focused towards who can shoot without being shot (I think we can all agree THAT would take skill). )

derp?

Hooray for camping!

 

[Fawful]

Stalker is a crazy russian game, therefore it has crazy russian game mechanics. That's not going against the idea, I think it's a good system, but I don't think (and I generalising) the type of person who plays COD daily would like it, I remember similar complaints about Farcry 2. Speaking of which...

I think Far Cry 2 had a system somewhat similar. Can't remember, though.

The Farcry 2 health system in moderate detail:

Spoiler

In Farcry 2 you had a health ber split into five bars/segments, when you lost all your health in one that bar wouldn't regenerate but if it a bar didn't empty fully that would regen. You could also use a syrette to get all of the bars you lost back, which you could only carry a limited number of. However if you got down to the last bar you would start bleeding out and couldn't heal up until you dug the bullet out your body.

It is kind of a shame that full health regen has become the norm and I do wish we could move away from them, but then again it beats health packs, which are just as unrealistic and annoying.